


try a little tenderness

by quarterleigh



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Yoga, F/F, Genderswap, a sort of unrealistic love at first sight kind of story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 06:27:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17955311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quarterleigh/pseuds/quarterleigh
Summary: "Lillian blows into her life like a gust of forgiving wind on a humid summers day. The moment they meet, Dan feels as if she is exhaling for the first time in months."Dan meets a beautiful woman at yoga.





	try a little tenderness

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Phandom Fic Fests](https://phandomficfests.tumblr.com/) Femslash fest. There's next to no plot and about half of it is porn. Thanks again to Cecily for the beta <3

 Lillian blows into her life like a gust of forgiving wind on a humid summers day. The moment they meet, Dan feels as if she is exhaling for the first time in months.

 It happens at a yoga class. Therapist-recommended. Dan bought herself a yoga mat and an expensive stainless steel water bottle in hopes that she would feel like she belonged there, amongst the type of women she had assumed would be in a yoga class on a Friday morning. As she enters the studio, her nerves settle. The instructor is a woman with frizzy gray hair and a wide smile. “Are you here for the beginners class?”  
 “Yes,” Dan says, quirking her lips up in what she hopes is more of a smile than a grimace.  
 “Well, get set up wherever you feel comfortable, dear.” _Dear_. This woman was a far cry from the athletic, intimidating instructor she had prepared herself for. Dan makes a beeline for the back of the room, next to a girl with buzzed brown hair and glasses. She doesn’t seem like the type for small talk.  
 It isn’t until after she rolls out her mat that she realises her mistake. The woman directly in front of her is going to be a problem. She’s stunning- long, black hair and bright blue eyes. Tall and lean with wide hips. The kind of woman Dan would have been obsessed with on MySpace ten years ago. And she’s smiling at her.  
 “Hi! I’m Lil, this is Bryony,” she says, resting a hand on the shoulder of the woman next to her.  
 “Dan,” Dan says, gesturing towards herself. “Did you say your name was Lil?”  
 “Well, Lillian, but yeah, everyone calls me Lil.”  
 “Oh,” Dan says, nodding. “Okay then.” There’s an awkward beat of silence.  
 “Well, feel free to ask me if you have any questions today.” Lil says, not unkindly. The woman next to her- Bryony- snorts. “I mean, I’m not like an expert or anything. But we’ve been coming here for a few weeks so, you know. Maybe I could help. I can definitely tell you where the vending machines are.”  
 “Well that’s a priority,” Dan says, smiling easily.  
 “Obviously. There are these really good chocolate bars-” Lil gets cut off by the instructor clapping her hands and starting the class. “I’ll show you later,” Lil whispers with a wink before turning to face the front.

 Dan spends the next forty-five minutes staring at Lillian’s back. She follows along with the instructor as best she can, but it’s hard to focus when she’s close enough to see Lil’s muscles tense. She’s endearingly bad at yoga, and Dan wants to tell her to relax, to reach out and run her hand along the skin of Lil’s lower back. To hold her at the curve of her hips, to lean forward and whisper encouragement in her ear. _Try it like this_ , she wants to say. _You’re so good,_ she dreams of telling her. She’s in the middle of a fantasy about pressing a kiss into the back of her neck when their eyes meet in the mirror on the opposite wall. Dan feels a second of terror, like she’s been caught out; but then Lil stumbles a bit on her feet and grins at her, cheeks pink from the exercise. Dan can feel herself melting.

 Class is over for maybe fifteen seconds when Dan gathers the courage to tap Lillian in the shoulder. “You said something about chocolate bars?” Lil’s eyes light up.  
 “Follow me,” she says, already on her way out. “Bye, Bry!” She calls to her friend.  
 “Oh. Bye, I guess.” Bryony says, in a way that makes Dan think she didn’t know Lil wasn’t leaving with her.  
 “You didn’t have plans with her did you?” Dan asks, following Lil into the hallway and down a flight of stairs.  
 “Who, Bryony? No. We normally leave together but this is more important.”  
 “Really,” Dan says as they stop in front of a vending machine.  
 “Obviously. You have to replenish your energy from all that exercise. What kind of person would I be if I let you leave without eating something?” Lil puts a few coins in the machine and pulls out a chocolate bar, and then another one.  
 “A normal person, probably.”  
 “Here,” she says, handing one of the bars to Dan. “This will change your life.”  
 “I would’ve bought my own, you know.”  
 “Are you turning down free chocolate?”  
 “Well, no. I’m not insane.”  
 “Then eat it,” Lil says, unwrapping hers and taking a bite. She makes a small moaning sound. “Seriously, it’s so good.” Dan sighs and opens hers. Lillian watches expectantly as she tries it. “Isn’t it good?” It’s fine.  
 “Really good.”  
 “Told you,” she says, smiling. Her eyes crinkle. They stand alone the hallway, watching each other eat. It’s comfortable. Lil takes the empty wrapper from Dan, tossing it in a wastebasket. Dan’s hand tingles where her fingertips grazed.  
 “Well, solid recommendation. I’m convinced.”  
 “Are you?”  
 “Yes.”  
 “Well that’s good, because I was going to recommend a place for dinner, if you’re up for it.”  
 “Dinner?”  
 “If you’re interested,” Lil says, a little less confident. _If I’m interested. If. I’m interested._  
 “I’m interested,” Dan says. She feels like she might buzz out of her skin.  
 “Okay, good,” Lil smiles. “Are you free tonight?” She’s always free.  
 “Yeah, I think tonight could work. Let me give you my number.” Lillian is full-on beaming as she pulls her phone from her backpack. Her lockscreen is a picture of a corgi in glasses and a bowtie. It’s adorable. As Dan is putting her number in, Lil clears her throat.  
 “And this is like… you know I’m asking you on a date right?”  
 “I figured.”  
 “You’re okay with that?”  
 “Yes. I’m okay with that.”

 They meet at a burger place. It’s not fast food, but it’s definitely casual, and Dan wonders for a moment if she should have gone with a nice pair of jeans rather than the faux-leather miniskirt she’s wearing, and then she sees Lillian run her eyes up and down her legs. “Oh dear. Am I overdressed?” She teases. Lil clears her throat before she answers.  
 “You’re allowed to wear literally whatever you want.”  
 “Do you like _this_ , though?” Lil’s eyes dart back down and then up again.  
 “I love that,” she says, voice soft and sincere. Dan’s knees go weak.

 The food is great and the company is better. Dan is positive that no one has ever been on a better first date than this. Lil is someone she couldn’t have dreamed up if she tried. Effortlessly cool and adorably enthusiastic; Dan nearly falls over when she learns that Lillian works at Radio 1, helping to write the morning shows. The same shows that keep her sane on her way into work every morning.  
 “Short answer, I’m a lawyer,” she says when asked.  
 “Oh!” exclaims Lil. “Wow. Sorry, I don’t know why that’s so surprising to me.”  
 “Well, I might not be one for much longer,” Dan shrugs. “I kind of hate it. I’ve been thinking about taking a sabbatical for a while.”  
 “You should, then. You should be doing something that makes you happy.”  
 “I have no idea what that even is.”  
 “You’ll figure it out. You just have to give yourself the chance to.”

 After dinner, they walk the long way back to the tube station. When Dan’s knuckles brush up against Lil’s fingers, Lil captures her hand in her own, bringing it to her lips for a chaste kiss and then holding it as they walk. “Do you have plans for the rest of the night? I have an extensive Blu-ray collection I’d like to show you,” she says. Dan laughs.  
 “Blu-ray and chill?”  
 “Blu-ray and whatever you want.”  
  
 Dan gets off at Lillian’s stop.

 They aren’t in Lil’s flat for long before they’re kissing. A short tour, a cursory glance at the aforementioned Blu-ray collection, and then Lillian is pressing her into the couch. Her skirt rides up as Lil presses a knee in between her legs. “Fuck,” Dan groans, grinding down onto her leg.  
 “This okay?” Lil murmurs between kisses.  
 “So okay,” Dan can hardly believe they just met that morning. She feels safe, like she’s known Lil for years.  
 “God,” Lil says, leaning back to undo the buttons on her shirt. Dan leans up to kiss her neck. “You’re so… you’re so…”  
 “Yes?” Dan asks, smiling into her shoulder and pulling Lil’s shirt off.  
 “You’re so much.” Lil is panting over her, in a blue lacy bra, eyes burning. It feels like a dream. Dan pulls her back down and kisses her on the mouth.  
 “I can’t explain what you’re doing to me,” she whispers. “It doesn’t make sense. I feel like I’ve been waiting for you forever.” Her words are intense, and she half expects Lillian to stand up and tell her to leave. _That’s crazy_ , she expects to hear. _We barely know each other_. Instead, Lil gasps softly and pulls her impossibly closer. Dan grinds up, trying to suppress her moan.  
 “Baby,” Lil says. She sounds wrecked, overcome. “Let’s go to bed, yeah?”

 They stumble to Lillian’s bedroom, pulling their clothes off as they go. The lamps are off but the room is glowing with fairy lights. Dan gently pushes Lil onto the bed and climbs on top of her, straddling her nearly naked body. “I won’t be able to stand behind you in yoga next week,” she murmurs. “I had a hard enough time this morning before I knew…”  
 “Before you knew?”  
 “What it’s like to taste you,” she finishes, and then leans down to kiss her thigh.  
 “Oh, fuck,” Lil moans, legs already shaking. “Please, Dan.” Dan kisses her through her panties. “Dan,” her voice is getting higher. Dan pulls the panties down and off of Lil’s long legs in one desperate movement. She takes a moment just to look, running her hands up and down Lil’s thighs as she watches her get wetter. Finally Lil moans another desperate “Baby,” and Dan licks up into her. She uses her hands, her fingers, her tongue, her lips. Anything she can do to keep Lil making those noises, she does it. Lil is a mess, writhing on the bed, grabbing at the sheets. She comes quickly, and hard. Dan keeps going until she comes again, practically crying with the force of it. “Up, up,” Lil says, gasping. She kisses Dan’s lips, tasting herself there.  
 “Oh, god,” Dan groans, shaking. Lil flips them over, and pulls a nipple into her mouth, reaching down to rub at Dan’s clit. “Ah!” Dan can hear herself all but squealing. By the time Lil’s fingers are inside of her, Dan thinks she might black out. She comes with convulsions, body trembling and squeezing and quivering. Lil collapses on top of her, kissing her until she has to pull back and gasp in for air, body still shaking. “Oh, fuck. That was insane,” she says.  
 Lil laughs. “Let’s do this instead of yoga every week.”  
 “Oh, I am so unbelievably on board with that,” Dan says, curling under Lil’s arm and into her side. “More than once a week though,” she adds as an afterthought.  
 “Definitely, definitely more than once a week.” Dan presses kisses down Lil’s jawline, her neck, her shoulder. She nudges her arm up and kisses underneath, at the hair that Lil has let grow long there. “I watched you during yoga this morning,” Lil whispers. “In the mirror. I saw you looking at me.” Dan grins. An hour ago she would have flushed red with embarrassment but now she feels completely unashamed, like she could cut her soul open for Lillian and receive nothing but tenderness in return.  
 “I was imagining this.”  
 “Did it live up to your imagination?” Dan kisses her cheek and nuzzles into her chest.  
 “Lillian, you have smashed all of my dreams to pieces. They are nothing compared to this. You’ve ruined me.” Lil smiles a beautiful smile.  
 “Does that mean you’ll stay with me tonight?”  
 “I think I would stay with you forever if you let me.”

 On Dan’s next birthday, she moves in. 

**Author's Note:**

> I sincerely hope you enjoyed! You can reblog [here](https://boxingphil.tumblr.com/post/183128041326/try-a-little-tenderness) if you'd like <3


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